The Cu–Pb–Zn-bearing veins of the Bou Skour deposit (Eastern Anti-Atlas, Morocco): structural control and tectonic evolution

Abstract

In the central Saghro massif of the Moroccan Anti-Atlas belt, the Bou Skour polymetallic deposit is hosted within mafic to felsic rocks of the Ediacaran Saghro Group and the lower Ouarzazate Group together with Pan-African plutons and dykes. The mineralizations occur in a brittle-ductile shear zone as a vein-type system recently dated at 574.9±2.4Ma. In this contribution, a new multi-scale structural mapping and vein system analysis have been integrated to understand structural control and tectonic evolution of the Bou Skour deposit. The most important mineralized structures are known as “Filon Principal”, “Filon 1”, and “Filon 2” and are mainly hosted within NNW to NW transcrustal faults. They are represented as en-echelon tension gashes occasionally associated with horsetail satellite structures pointing to left-lateral strike-slip movement. The age and tectonic patterns are coherent with the NW–SE shortening of the last stage of the Pan-African orogeny rather than with post Pan-African events. Subsequent collapses and tilted blocks were accommodated by NE- to ENE normal and strike-slip faults in response to the Late Ediacaran–Cambrian extension events. Much later, probably during the Variscan or even Atlasic shortening, conjugated strike-slip reverse faults and related folds occurred, disrupting most of the rhyolitic dykes as well as the major mineralized structures.